• Tag Archives Chronicles of Elantra
  • REPUBLIC OF EVERFROST & CAST IN ATONEMENT

    I had thought the thirteenth Arch Magus novel was taking longer than usual to appear, and apparently (according to the Afterword here) it’s because the author burned out and was thinking of ending the series. They changed their mind though and this entry is kind of a transitory one centered on giving some backstory to that group of Imperial witches mentioned a few times earlier.

    Michelle Sagara‘s latest Elantra novel focuses mainly on wrapping up the ‘seeing ghosts’ plotline while also tying it into and adding an addendum to the gold dragon’s backstory. Or rather, I’d like to say it focuses on that, but instead it mostly consists of chained recap segments which only eventually get around to dealing with that in a tortuously roundabout manner.


  • CAST IN ETERNITY & Solo Leveling #6

    Michelle Sagara‘s follow-up to Cast in Conflict decides to greatly expand the backstory on a previously minor side character. While initially this seems like a baffling decision, it eventually pays off with the introduction of several new ancient entities. As a plus, the level of metaphysical technobabble manages to stay on the restrained side of things.

    The sixth Solo Leveling novel picks up right from where the last left off and centers itself around combat. Both with magical beasts and even some hunters. Basically, this book appears to mark the turning point between focusing on dungeons and focusing on particularly strong individual enemies.


  • Over the Woodward Wall & CAST IN CONFLICT

    I’m unsure why Over the Woodward Wall, written under the alias A. Deborah Baker, is not a part of Seanan McGuire‘s Wayward Children series. In all ways that matter it’s pretty much identical to those books… so why did she invent a new alias just for this? To trick people who hated that series into thinking it would be more like Middlegame instead?

    Whatever the reason, I’d suggest avoiding it unless you love Wayward Children and/or enjoy paying $12 for less than 200 pages of story.

    Michelle Sagara‘s 16th Elantra novel goes in an unexpected direction from where Cast in Wisdom left off. I had thought it would focus on the protagonist learning to read her marks, but it instead centers on semi-completing Bellusdeo’s character arc and reducing the number of directionless Cohort members laying about. Though to be fair it also introduces a new character who looks like they’ll help quite a bit in the ‘deciphering marks’ department.

    So it’s… more of the same I suppose? Which, at least as far as I’m concerned, is a good thing.


  • Cast In Wisdom & A Killing Frost

    Back in Cast In Oblivion you may remember that the protagonist finally decided to learn more about how to use her powers. Well, the 15th book (not including Cast In Moonlight) in Michelle Sagara‘s Chronicles of Elantra series take the necessary step of introducing a new location filled with characters who can advance that goal. It ends up one of the better installments (despite a continued lack of weight to the action scenes) thanks to both not getting bogged down in metaphysics and Kaylin’s continuing maturation as a character; for those saying she never changes you really need to read the first book (Cast In Shadow) again and then realize that less than 2 years have passed since then.

    Seanan McGuire’s A Killing Frost, the 14th October Daye entry, also advances its goal… far more than I thought it would after the meandering prequel. Not only is the titular ‘Search for Simon’ subplot resolved, but one of the series’ major overarching plotlines gets spontaneously resolved as well. Perhaps a bit too spontaneously. Presumably that event will be examined in more detail in the future, put aside here as it was in favor of wrapping up Simon’s arc, and I hope the author can come up with a believable enough justification for it.

    As for the bonus novella included within: It’s a perfectly fine prequel focusing on the Lordens’ relationship with Simon, which adds some useful context to Killing Frost‘s developments.


  • Cast In Oblivion & Guild Hunter #6-11

    The fourteenth entry in Michelle Sagara‘s Elantra series resolves the long-simmering subplot regarding the Barrani’s Test of Name and, far more importantly, gives indication that Kaylin is finally ready to research how to consciously use the powers at her disposal for more than healing. There are many directions the series can go from here, but I hope it continues to advance the ‘main’ storyline involving the Dragon outcast.

    Nalini Singh’s Guild Hunter series is one that I initially loved, but which eventually fell out of favor as the books became more episodic and overly similar to her Psy-Changling series in content. Picking the series back up on a whim turned out to be a good idea:

    • Archangel’s Legion – While the number of sex scenes is certainly overwhelming and/or gratuitous, the character interactions and notable advancement of the central Cascade-related plotline makes it all worthwhile.
    • Archangel’s Shadows – The seventh book slips back into episodic territory… but not completely; though primarily focused on the development of the secondary pairing it does not forget about Elena/Raphael. The number of sex scenes being drastically reduced is a happy bonus.
    • Archangel’s Enigma – Continues the trend of the previous entry fairly seamlessly. It does feel uncomfortably similar to the aforementioned Psy-Changling novels though.
    • Archangel’s Heart – The focus shifts back to Elena/Raphael and the Cascade here, going well out of its way to tie in Elena’s family history. Putting the highly questionable level of contrivance aside the mix of content manages to almost fully recapture the spark of series’ early entries. It unfortunately does nothing to allay my growing concern over the increasing number of lifebond pairings though.
    • Archangel’s Viper – A massive step backward, this book is basically everything that made me drop the series in the first place. Being almost wholly episodic (taking place during the same time period as the previous novel) is bad enough, worse is that the relationship does not develop in even a remotely believable manner. At least the Uram-corruption subplot is finally resolved.
    • Archangel’s Prophecy – Such whiplash. Completely different from Viper, Prophecy goes all-in on the Cascade and ends up perfectly recreating the feeling of Angels’ Blood. I’m now more than a little annoyed the next book won’t be released until September.

  • Chronicles of Elantra #10-13

    Michelle Sagara’s Chronicles of Elantra series is a bit different than most in that rather than a collection of related stories it’s more like one continuous story; the breaks between books are not much different from the breaks between chapters. As a result it can occasionally be somewhat frustrating to read, due to creating the illusion that the character development should be greater than it is.

    Cast in Flame isn’t as abstract as the previous book in the series, and I’m immensely thankful for that. That said, the whole ‘heart of the house’ activation scene felt like a copy-paste of the Tiamaris claiming. The follow-up, Cast in Honor, is on the borderline when it comes to abstraction and features some interesting developments regarding both the shadow and Bellusdeo.

    Cast in Flight is one of the more stand-alone books, which is to say that its central plotline is relatively self-contained and it doesn’t really leave any major loose-ends behind. It’s a nice change of pace after the previous two entries. The 13th book on the other hand both leaves several major loose ends dangling and starts off badly. Very badly. It’s not until about a third of the way through that events and character behavior become less… grating. But they do indeed get better and I’m definitely looking forward to the continuation.


  • Recent Books

    Normally I do these three at a time… but, well…

    Cast in Sorrow (Michelle Sagara) – Completes the storyline started in Cast in Peril. I’m indifferent toward it. While on the one hand there’s some tangible progress on the Barrani front, on the other the general style and plot developments are starting to seriously trend into the abstract and hand-wavy. It’s hard to read some of it without feeling a deep sense of skepticism. Aside: For some strange reason I picture the Barrani as being similar to The Last Remnant‘s Sovani.

    Chimes at Midnight (Seanan McGuire) – Not much to say about this really other than it’s just as good as the earlier October Daye novels. Well, one more thing: It seems to mark the beginning of shifting the overarching background conflict into the foreground.

    Ritual Magic (Eileen Wilks) – It’s fairly amazing that this series continues to avoid the various and sundry paranormal romance pitfalls. Picking up right where Mortal Ties left off, it ends with what looks to be a good point to switch over to a different set of protagonists for a bit.

    Steelheart (Brandon Sanderson) – The setting for this novel is very good and having a protagonist that seems to have either asperger’s or autism is an interesting choice. Unfortunately, those are the only things I can praise about it since the general character behavior and plot developments seem ripped right out of a summer blockbuster. It all feels so artificial.

    Perdition (Ann Aguirre) – This beginning of a new series set in the Sirantha Jax universe is, for the most part, very engaging indeed. The only area in which it slips up a bit is the romance aspect. The relationship seems a little forced and does not feel quite natural. That said, it’s certainly not as bad as what you’d find in a generic romance novel.

    Dancing with the Devil (Keri Arthur) – Speaking of generic romance novels…. I ordered the first three books in this series blind due to what I’m going to chalk up to sudden insanity. For some reason I thought this might be more like Arthur’s Myth and Magic series then her Riley Jenson/Dark Angels series. Again, no clue why I thought that, but this book is as generic paranormal romance as you can get.

    Hearts in Darkness (Keri Arthur) – The first entry in this series is merely generic; this one is downright painful. Not only is the most by-the-numbers example of a paranormal romance still present and as vaguely embarrassing as ever, signs of power-level creep start to appear alongside a dash of internal inconsistency.

    Chasing the Shadows (Keri Arthur) – While for the most part just as unpleasant to read as the second book, this does take an unexpected turn toward the end. The ‘good guys’ actually losing is a very rare thing to see in this sort of novel. Of course, considering the new suite of powers Nikki gains here that loss may end up being not much of a loss at all in the long run.